Louder Than Words
by adorkable97
Summary: Set after episode 1:08...I'm really bad at summaries...mainly about the Rachel-Puck-Finn love triangle! CHAPTER 7 UP NOW! I don't know if this is a Puck/Rachel fic or Finn/Rachel...you guys decide...REVIEW!
1. Chapter 1: All Because Of You

**Ok so this takes off from where Rachel breaks up with Noah in 1:08 but it's just a little different from the show. Instead in the fanfic Rachel and the Glee club (but especially Rachel) are kind of mad that Finn chooses football over them. I really suck at summaries as it is and considering I wrote this on a whim and have absolutely NO idea where I'm going with this from here I can't really say much but that it mostly centers around Rachel. Finn, Puck, and some Quinn. Other Glee club members will be in the story but not as much as those four. I really don't know which couple this story is even about at the moment (Rachel/Finn? Puck/Rachel? Finn/Quinn? Quinn/Puck?) I DON'T KNOW!!! I kind of am liking all of them at the moment! What can I say? This show is just **_**that**_** amazing =)**

**P.S. READ AND REVIEW!!! REALLY TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK!!! THIS IS MY FIRST FANFIC EVER SO I WANT TO KNOW!!!**

**Chapter 1**

**All Because Of You**

Rachel Berry felt a chill as cold as the slushies the football team threw in her face on a weekly basis run through her spine as she watched Noah Puckerman stomp off, leaving her by herself on the bleachers. Slowly she closed her eyes and let out a shaky breath. That had been a lot harder then she'd ever expected it to be. It shouldn't have been hard at all. He was Noah freaking Puckerman. The jackass who had made it his goal for years to make her life a living hell. But as she watched his tall figure disappear behind the corner of the school building she felt a feeling of sadness wash over her.

"Ok team, bring it in." Coach Tanaka shouted after his whistle let out a deafening chirp. The red uniform wearing high schoolers all slowly padded across the lush green grass to their coach where he told them all to 'take a knee'. As all the players got down on one knee Coach Tanaka started talking.

Rachel was too far away to hear anything he was saying but even if she had been close enough she would've completely blocked it all out, too busy staring at the tall, brunette boy who had stolen and crushed her heart twice in less than one semester. Another chill ran through her as everything else seemed to slow down as she watched Finn Hudson from the stands.

Rachel felt her heart sped up as memories of his lips pressing to hers filled her mind. His taste, his smell. It was all intoxicating to her. She shook off these thoughts quickly pushing them back in to the far corners of her mind. He had a girlfriend. A _pregnant_ girlfriend. There wasn't a chance for them. She had to forget about him. Just like he had about her and the rest of glee club.

"Finn!" Coach said calling the quarterback over. He stood up along with the rest of the team as they formed a circle. "McKinley on three!" he shouted. "One, two, three. McKinley!" they shouted before the circle broke apart. Rachel watched as the sweaty boys got their stuff together before they all headed, their duffels draped over their shoulders and water bottles in hands.

"Finn, you coming?" Tommy Young shouted over his shoulder noting that the captain was taking his time getting his things together. "Yeah, I'll be right there." he replied. Tommy nodded and ran to catch up with some of the other players leaving Finn behind.

Finn looked off towards his teammates making sure all of them entered the locker room before he let out a breath and closed his eyes before falling back on to the metal bench wondering how life had gotten so screwed up. Football was supposed to be his top priority. But sitting there on the bench now he couldn't help but feel bad for leaving Glee.

Not only did he desert the club only weeks before sectionals but he deserted his friends. Artie, Kurt, Tina, Mercedes, and..._Rachel?_

Looking up from the grass he had been staring blankly into moments ago he noticed the petite brunette from across the field. Her hair was blowing slightly in the wind and her eyes were closed, seeming to enjoy the crisp fall Ohio breeze. Suddenly as if feeling his eyes on her, her eyes snapped open and they are looking up in to Finn's.

Her breath caught in her throat for only a moment but she quickly turned away, hoping he hadn't seen her staring. Rachel quickly stood from the bleachers when she noticed Noah's red letterman's jacket lying on the floor.

She sucks in a breath and exhales realizing that she would have to return it to him which meant one of those awkward moments you have with your exes. Rachel shivered slightly and wrinkled her nose at the thought of Noah Puckerman being her ex-boyfriend. Even if it hadn't lasted that long, it was still weird.

She slowly bent over and scooped up the jacket from the floor, glancing quickly over her shoulder at Finn who was still intently staring at her from across the field with a determined look in his eyes.

Rachel clutched on to Puke's jacket as she darted down the metal stairs and headed towards the parking lot. Out of the corner of her eye, however, she can see the quarterback standing from the bench and walking her way. She sped up her steps now, making sure her brown eyes were kept locked on the black ground of the track encircling the football field.

"Rachel!" Finn called out to her starting to jog towards her. "Rachel!" he yelled again beginning to run now. She pretended not to notice him calling her name but it didn't matter anymore because he caught up to her. _Damn high heels._

"Rachel." he said again grabbing her by the shoulder and turning her around.

"What, Finn?" she spat. "What do you want?"

"I wanted to explain." he said in a soft voice, taken aback slightly by her tone.

"Explain what? The fact that you deserted the only true friends you have right now?" she glared. "Don't worry about it, Finn. No explanation needed." she said glancing down at his hand that still lingered on her shoulder then back up at him telling him with her eyes to remove his hand.

He noticed the look she was giving him and looked at his hand but didn't move it, knowing that she would leave as soon as he did. "I didn't mean to hurt you, Rachel."

"Well that's too bad," Rachel said in a level tone. "because you did."

And with that Rachel spun around on the soles of her shoes, shrugging off Finn's hand and walking with her head held high and a tear rolling down her cheek as she approached the parking lot.

* * *

**Ok so that was actually really fun to write! I totally get why all you guys like writing fan fiction so much =) **

**I think I'm gonna continue this now that I've written it and have a few ideas for where this story could go. Still not entirely sure about the couples though. I **_**really**_** like Noah and Rachel but Finn is really sweet too! Ugh! I can't decide! I guess you'll just have to bear with me until I finally make a decision about who I want who to end up with.**

**So again reviews are appreciated!!!**

**Thanks 33 ASmith7642**

**P.S. title is taken from the song All Because of You by U2 (btw all chapter titles, like the story, is going to be a song title)**


	2. Chapter 2: Trust Me

**Hey yall!**

**First off, let me say thanks for the reviews!!! I really appreciate it! Anyway I'm gonna make my rambling as short as possible so that we can get on with the chapter but I am going to give you a heads up now that I am adding a new character to the Glee club! I know some of you might not like that but I really will try and make the character is as likable as possible…I promise!**

**P.S. The scene in 1:08 when Finn slushied Kurt (well Kurt slushied himself) never happened. I love that part but for this chapter to work I kinda had to cut it out.**

**Again: READ AND REVIEW!!!!!**

**Chapter 2  
Trust Me**

As Rachel unpacked her backpack in to her locker slowly the next morning she tried extra hard to pretend that the letterman's jacket folded up in a neat square at the bottom wasn't there. Because she knew that if it wasn't there then she had no reason to go see Noah Puckerman. She could just go back to pretending he didn't exist. But even with her wishful thinking every time she stuck her hand in to the pink rolling bag her hand brushed against the leather fabric and she couldn't pretend anymore.

Rachel grumbled to herself when she slipped her hand inside the backpack for a fourth time to find the only thing left was the jacket. _Great._

She lifted the jacket out of the bottom of the bag then stuffed the pink pack in to her locker before slamming it shut. Suddenly, Finn appeared before her. "Ahhhh!" she cried jumping back in surprise. One hand flew to her chest while the other gripped Noah's worn out jacket.

"Finn, what are you doing?" she said breathed out in a sigh of relief it wasn't a different football player holding a grape slushie from the local 7-11.

"I just came to walk you to class." Finn shrugged with a small smile. Rachel opened her mouth to reply when two football players whose jersey's read Carter and Hamilton on the back in bold white lettering.

"Finnster!" the called as they arrived on opposite sides of the tall brunette. They slapped their hands down on his shoulder. "Have you picked your victim this morning?" the boy whose jersey read Hamilton asked before glancing at Rachel, his eyes suddenly flashing with excitement. "Well, well, well. I guess you have."

Rachel eyes shifted to the Styrofoam cup where some of the beverage sloped on to the floor in the other boy's hand as he lifted it up to show him. Her eyes moved back and forth between Finn and the cup a hurt look in her eyes.

"Isn't it somebody else's day to slushie someone?" Finn asked sounding desperate. He didn't want to slushie Rachel. He was already trying to win her and the glee club back. If not to accept him on the team once football was over at least as his friends. And slushie-ing one of the members wouldn't help _at all_.

Carter shook his head. "Because of your great choice of football over gay explosion," the boy said eyeing Rachel who crossed her arms over her chest at the hateful name the jocks called the glee club. "We've decided that you get to slushie someone everyday this week." He announced as if this was some sort of prize to be a jerk and ruin some else's whole day.

Finn opened his mouth to protest but Hamilton was already passing him the over flowing cup of ice and corn syrup.

"Go on." Carter encouraged.

Finn bit his lip glancing over his shoulder at his teammates and the slowly forming crowd behind them. He turned back to be greeted by the pleading, sad brown eyes of Rachel Berry and he felt his whole heart inflate at the sight.

"Come on, Finn!" Hamilton yelled pushing his shoulder slightly.

The thought of how just days ago seven of these guys had thrown slushies in his face made him want to do two things. 1.) Punch every guy who had done that to him and 2.) Never want to experience that again. So in fear Finn slowly lifted the cup, closing his eyes as he did this and tossed it directly in to Rachel's face.

The crowd all snickered and laughed as the petite girl became drenched with the cold cherry flavored liquid. The bell rang and everyone started towards their classes including Hamilton and Carter leaving Rachel and Finn standing in the hallway alone.

Rachel eyes were closed as she tried to calm herself. _Breath in, breath out. Breath in, breath out_. She repeated this several times before she very slowly opened her eyes to see Finn staring at her with his big brown puppy dog eyes.

She sucked in a cool breath and released it before turning around and walking to the girl's bathroom without even as much as a flinch as Finn called out to her before she pushed the door open to the ladies room.

When she walked in she carelessly threw Noah's jacket on the counter next to the sink and just stared at it for a few seconds before looking up at her slushie covered face in the mirror. The syrup had dried now and her face was incredibly sticky. Her hair was completely destroyed and dripping. And she didn't even wanna look at her stained white blouse.

_Come on, Rachel. You knew this was coming. He's a jock. This is what the jocks do to you. It's nothing new. _But she wondered if she had known it was coming, why had it hurt so much more?

Suddenly the door to the girl's bathroom opened and a tall beautiful blonde girl walked in. She stopped short seeing the slushie covered brunette feet away. The blonde sighed and frowned the stranger. "Bad day?" she asked in a voice that sounded like she understood.

Rachel sniffled as a few tear drops ran from her eyes and nodded. "You can't even imagine."

The blonde laughed slightly. "Trust me on this one, I can." And in just those few words Rachel could tell that she really could trust her.

**Okay! END OF CHAPTER 2!!!! This chapter actually took me a long time to plan but once I came up with the whole slushie thing I couldn't stop typing! I really hope all you guys who read this really enjoyed it and are excited for chapter 3! I know I am.**

**Also the blonde girl at the end of this chapter is the new character…I know I didn't tell you much at all about her but next chapter you'll officially be introduced to her…I came up with a cool way of including the new character in the story without being part of the love square but still being kind of a major character. I think you guys will really like it.**

**NOTE TO PUCKLEBERRY FANS THAT ARE READING THIS: I am so sorry there hasn't been ANY interaction between the two characters in this story at all yet…I originally planned for Rachel to return the jacket in this chapter but then I came up with the slushie idea and it was a way to introduce the newbie so that's what I wrote…I promise that next chapter there will be some Puck and Rachel though.**

**NOTE TO FINN/RACHEL FANS THAT ARE READING THIS: I saw that some of you commented there weren't any Finn/Rachel stories on FF and I agree but like I said I still don't know for sure…I really like both couples…so at the moment it really could go either way…but I will tell you I really loved them on last Wednesday's episode! (BEST EVER!!)**

**Ok…thanks again for reading! And remember REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW!!!**

**Thanks 33 ASmith7642**

**P.S. title- Trust Me by The Fray (I love them!)**


	3. Chapter 3: With One Look

Chapter 3  
With One Look

As Rachel heard the last bell of the day ring out loud and clear through the halls of McKinley High she let a sigh of relief. She had made it.

"Remember class, essays are due by next Thursday!" Miss. Franklin shouted over the ringing of the bell as students quickly got their stuff together ready to start the weekend. "Next Thursday!" Rachel heard her English teacher repeat before she scurried out of the classroom, eager to make it to the choir room.

Without even stopping at her locker to put her books away, Rachel made her way to the music room and was happy to find she was the first one there. Rachel smiled happily as she walked in to the empty room and towards the black shiny piano.

Dropping her books next to the bench, she sat down and began to run her fingers over the black and white keys. Slowly she began to press the keys so that she was playing a soft ballad. The notes spilled out of the piano beautifully with every press of a key. Not even fully aware of what she was doing, Rachel began to sing.

_So I lay my head back down,  
and I lift my hands and pray to be only yours  
I pray to be only yours.  
I know now you're my  
only hope._

As the song came to an end and she pressed the last key the sound of slow clapping came from behind her.

Rachel jumped at the sound not expecting it and turned around to find Noah Puckerman standing in the doorway of the music room. He took a step in to the room bringing his clapping to an end.

Rachel clutched her chest and let out a shaky breath. "Noah," she said. "You scared me. What are you doing here?"

"Oh, me?" he said falling in to a chair. "I'm just here for Glee. You know, the club I gave up my whole social reputation for?" he replied bitterly crossing his arms over his chest.

Rachel turned away from the piano and stood from the bench. "No one asked you to do that." She replied with a shrug. And she was right. She had never come out and asked him to give up football for Glee. Had she hoped he would, yes. But had she asked him to, no. She had wanted him to make the choice for himself. And he chose glee club.

Puck rolled his green eyes and scoffed. "Whatever," he said knowing she was right. An awkward silence lingered between the two high schoolers for a few moments when Noah finally spoke up again, this time in a more friendly tone. "I didn't know you could play piano." He stated nodding towards the large instrument in the center of the room.

Rachel shrugged as she scooped up her things from the floor. "There's a lot you don't know about me."

Puck opened his mouth to reply but before he could say anything the other members of the Glee club walked in to the room laughing and talking loudly.

Puck snapped his mouth shut and rolled back his shoulders as Santana shot him a sultry smile and wiggled her fingers before slipping in to the chair next to next to Quinn nearest to the door.

"Hey Puck" Mike said plopping in to a seat a row above him next to the bubbly blonde cheerleader, Brittney. Puck nodded at Mike as he slapped hands with Matt who was passing by. He was about to say something when Rachel sat down in the seat next to him. The three ex-football players just stared at her for a minute.

Rachel felt their eyes on her and turned to Puck with an annoyed expression on her face. "What?" she asked. "There are no seats left. Where was I supposed to sit?" she asked raising an eyebrow. When none of them responded she turned away staring straight forward at the piano.

_Hell no. There is no way I'm going to sit next to little miss diva for the next hour. No. Way. In. Hell._

Before Noah could move over to the stool his guitar was leaning against Mr. Schuster walked in to the room. _Damn it._

"Ok," he started dropping his things to the floor and clapping his hands together. "So last night I came up with an idea." Mr. Schue said with a wide smile. "And if I do say so myself it's pretty awesome!"

"Mr. Schue," Noah started. "I think I speak for all of us here when I say get on with it!" he said impatiently. Rachel rolled her eyes at Puck and sat up straight as Mr. Schue brushed off the teenager's comment and continued talking.

"As I was saying…" Mr. Schue started again when this time he was interrupted by the light tapping on the choir room door. Everyone exchanged confused glances, looking around the room to make sure everyone was here.

Mr. Schue walked over to the door and opened it to find the tall blonde from the bathroom earlier that morning standing in the door way.

_What is she doing her?_ Rachel thought this as Mr. Schue laughed at something she said and opened the door further so she could walk in. She smiled politely and took a few steps in to the room.

When the blonde walked in to the room she smiled shyly feeling everyone's eyes looking her up and down.

Rachel tilted her head to the side in confusion as Mr. Schue came back over to the group again. "Guys, I'd like to introduce you to…" Mr. Schue said looking at the blonde to finish his sentence for him.

"Oh," she said getting the hint. "Ali. Ali Dawson" she said with a small smile.

"Ali Dawson!" Mr. Schue said clasping his hands together. She smiled sweetly at the members of the Glee club as she scanned the dozen students that filled the chairs in front of her. When her green eyes landed on Rachel she thought back to the bathroom earlier that morning and waved slightly.

Rachel waved slowly back before Ali turned to face Mr. Schuster again. From the corner of her eye she saw Kurt raise his hand. "Mr. Schue. If I may ask, what is she doing here?" he asked adjusting his beret.

"She," Mr. Schue said, "is here to try out for the glee club."

In seconds the room started buzzing. Rachel watched as the blonde uncomfortably shifted at the group's reaction.

"But Mr. Schue," Kurt said standing from his chair, "wouldn't it be kind of hard to include her? I mean it's almost time for sectionals and we already have all our dance numbers made up." He pointed out glancing over at the blonde.

"Yes." Mr. Schue said with a nod. "Exactly." "We have dance numbers for 12 and we only have 11. She'll be taking Finn's place."

Hearing Mr. Schue say Finn's name hit Rachel like a giant wave crashing to shore, the mere mention of his name making it that much more real that he was gone.

"But she's a girl." Brittney said tilting her head to the side in confusion trying to figure out how a girl was going to take Finn's place.

Mr. Schue nodded. "Yes. That is true. Ali won't necessarily be taking Finn's place but she will be joining the club."

"How do we even know if she's any good?" Quinn piped up from the back of the room crossing her arms over her chest.

Mr. Schue smiled. "She actually already auditioned for me this afternoon. And she was…" Mr. Schue started when Quinn jumped right back in again.

"She didn't audition for _us_. I think we should have a say in all this."

Mr. Schue looked at Quinn. "I don't think that'll be necessary Quinn…"

"Can I talk for myself?" Ali interrupted stepping in causing the room to quiet down again. Everyone watched hungrily as the blonde looked at the cheerleader with a grimace. "I can sing for you guys. If you think it would be fair." She said accepting Quinn's challenge.

Rachel smiled to herself as she looked between Ali and Quinn admiring the tall stranger. She was sticking up to Quinn Fabray. _If she only knew what that really meant..._

Mr. Schue looked between the two blondes who were glaring at each other and nodded slowly. "Alright than. Go ahead." He said clapping his hands together as the blonde whispered instructions to the pianist.

The lights lowered as the blonde stepped in to the center of the room. The piano started playing a soft tone and when Ali began to sing everyone in the room froze.

_Guess mine is not the first heart broken  
My eyes are not the first to cry  
I'm not the first to know there's  
Just no getting over you_

_You know I'm just a fool who's willing  
To sit around and wait for you  
But baby can't you see there's nothing else for me to do  
I'm hopelessly devoted to you_

_But now there's nowhere to hide  
Since you pushed my heart aside  
I'm outta my head hopelessly devoted to you  
Hopelessly devoted to you  
Hopelessly devoted to you_

As clearly the newest member of the glee club held out the last note of the Olivia Newton John song Noah glanced over at Rachel noticing her in shock expression. The song came to an end and everyone erupted in to applause, except for Rachel who just sat completely shocked.

Noah smirked as he leaned over towards Rachel. "Looks like someone just got some competition." He whispered his breath hot on her neck.

Rachel fell back in to her chair as Mr. Schue made room for Ali on the stool where Noah's guitar sat. She took in the pretty blonde's face of pure of joy and the impressed expressions on everyone else's. She took in the way everyone was nodding and clapping and let out a shaky breath as she closed her brown eyes. And she especially took in their undeniable admiration. With one look Rachel could already tell that this girl was about to turn her world and everyone else's upside down. So turning to Noah she nodded and replied "I guess so."

* * *

**Ok! END OF CHAPTER 3!!**

**So that took me FOREVER to write! Not only did I write a few versions of this chapter but then I had to think and come up with a song for both Rachel and Ali to sing in this (btw Rachel's song was Only Hope by Mandy Moore and Ali's was Hopelessly Devoted To You by Olivia Newton John from Grease if you didn't know that already). This was a really hard chapter to write but since I've had so much time to write this I came up with lots and lots of ideas for this story that I'm sure you guys will love!!!**

**I'm not really sure about this chapter…so please let me know what you think about it or if you guys have any ideas! REVIEWS MAKE ME UPDATE FASTER!!!!!!!**

**Btw I've seen in reviews that half of you guys want this story to be Finn/Rachel and the other half Puckleberry…well let me just say that I still have not decided but I think I'm leaning more towards one couple more than another...BUT I'm telling you which one! Lol yes I am evil :)!!! This however doesn't mean you guys can't still keep posting comments of which couple you want more…perhaps if I get enough reviews for a specific couple I'll even change the story around so that it's that couple who end up together in the end!**

**P.S. REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW!!!!!!!!**

**P.S.S. song title-With One Look by Elaine Paige**

**33 ASmith7642**


	4. Chapter 4: So Close, So Far

**HEY ALL!**

**First off let me say thank you, thank you, thank you for all your positive reviews! =) They totally made my day! **

**Speaking of reviews that's the next thing I want to mention…Some of you said that you DON'T like the new girl and others said they DO so I'm gonna try really hard to work with that. **

**There will be a bigger author's note at the end so for now on with chapter 4!**

**ENJOY!! :)**

* * *

Chapter 4  
So Close, So Far

Rachel stormed out of the music room at the end of Glee practice that day as the rest of the club surrounded around her new tall blonde rival congratulating her and telling her what a great singer she was.

She was a little angry but mostly she felt hurt. She had just as good a voice if not better as the new girl and instead of praising her for it as they did Ali, they just used her. She had never really felt appreciated by anyone in glee club except for Finn. But he was gone now.

But she didn't care what the rest of the team thought. Not really. Singing was her passion. She did it for herself. She didn't need their approval. She knew she was good.

"Hey, Berry!"

_Oh, great. What does he want?_

Rachel spun around to find Noah jogging towards her down the hall. "What Puck?" she asked not in the mood for another one of his snide comments that he had been making to her the whole time.

"You left this." He said brushing off her annoyed tone and holding out her small gray cardigan that had been hanging on the back of her chair.

"Oh." Rachel said feeling a little bad for snapping at him. "Thank you." She said was she reached for her favorite sweater, She ran her nimble fingers over the soft gray fabric before slipping it on over the back-up blouse she had found in her locker that morning after she had been slushied. Luckily she always carried around an extra set of clothes in case of events such as that.

A light bulb in Rachel's head went off as she thought back to her locker, remembering the jacket.

"Oh," she said. "This reminds me." She said as she brushed some lint off the gray fabric. "Come with me." Rachel instructed spinning around on the soles of her black high heels and walked down the halls speedily.

Puck adjusted his backpack on his shoulder, shifting his weight and walked leisurely behind the leader of the Glee Club. Well, at least the leader for now.

He had seen the way everyone was looking at Ali. And by the look on everyone's face, Puck knew Rachel's spot at the top was in jeopardy.

As he turned the corner he saw the short brunette spinning the dial, punching in the combination before the metal door squeaked open. Puck reached her locker to see her pulling out his letterman's jacket from her backpack.

"No way!" Noah exclaimed grabbing at the jacket in excitement. "I've been looking for this everywhere. Where'd you find it?" he asked as he shrugged on the jacket having missed the powerful sense he felt whenever he wore it.

"You left it yesterday out on the bleachers." Rachel explained as she dropped her books off on the bottom shelf of her locker. Her math book slumped over on its side and she sighed standing it up again in a perfect line next to her science book. She couldn't stand to have her locker disorganized. She was kind of OCD when it came to stuff like that.

At the mention of their brief but oddly painful moment on the bleachers the day before Puck's face fell slightly. Memories of the previous days began to swirl through his head like a tornado. He closed his eyes and let out a breath wondering how the hell this girl who he had thrown slushies at since freshman year had somehow gotten to him in less than a week.

"Noah?" Rachel asked softly, placing a hand on his shoulder. Noah eyes sprang open and all the thoughts swirling through his head disappeared like water down a drain. "Are you okay?" she asked concern in her brown eyes.

Noah snorted and shrugged off her hand. "I'm fine." He said turning his face slightly away from Rachel try to gain back his arrogant composure.

Rachel rolled her eyes at Puck's expression as she closed her locker shut remembering why she had broken up with him the day before. When Rachel spun around to face Puck again there was a long pause before either of them spoke not really sure what else there was to say.

"Well, thanks for the jacket." Noah mumbled so low it was barely audible, cringing slightly to himself as if saying thank you to Rachel Berry was painful for him.

"You're welcome." Rachel said as Noah ran a hand through his Mohawk. Looking at his hair she shook her head. "Why do insist on keeping that ridiculous haircut?" Rachel thought, her face paling as she realized she had said it aloud.

"Excuse me?" Noah asked raising his eyebrows and crossing his arms over his buff chest.

Rachel straightened herself up beginning to slowly walk down the hall with him. "It's just it's so…so…childish."

"You think this," he said gesturing to the hairstyle on top of his head, "is _childish_?"

"Yes." She replied plainly.

Noah's mouth fell open slightly in awe. No one had ever said anything negative about him, let alone his hair before. It was probably because they were scared of him. But he was Noah Puckerman, who wasn't a little afraid of him? And the one person to actually say something to him about anything was Rachel freaking Berry. Wow.

Normally he would have already planned to slushie her every day for the next 3 weeks straight for standing up to him but right now he couldn't help but find it kind of…hot.

"Babe, this is badass: the total opposite of childish. I don't know what planet you live on but I don't know of many babies and toddlers with Mohawks despite how freaking _awesome_ that would be."

Rachel couldn't help but crack a smile and laugh at the ex-football player as the two pushed open the doors to McKinley High School. As they were walking outside they were greeted by a low grumble from the gray sky above them.

At the sound of Rachel's laugh Puck's face immediately lit up. Realizing this he punished himself by digging his thumb nail in to his hand. _What the hell is happening to me?_

The two slowed as they reached the end of the sidewalk. Puck stopped and turned around to face Rachel who had stopped to dig out her purple cell phone. On the back of which was a giant bejeweled R.

Rachel quickly dialed her dad's number and pressed the cool metal to her ear. Immediately it went to voicemail so she tried daddy's cell and got the same thing. "Great." She mumbled to herself snapping shut her phone and tucking it back in to her bag. When she turned around she was surprised to see Noah still standing there looking around the parking lot.

"What's wrong?" he asked not really sure why he was asking in the first place. It's not like he cared.

"It's nothing. My dads' just didn't answer their phones so I don't have a ride." Rachel said glancing over her shoulder hoping that Mercedes or Tina would be walking out the door and she could just ask one of them for a ride.

"Oh," he said. He opened his mouth again to speak but she put up a hand telling him to stop.

"It's not a big deal. You don't even have to offer. I'll just walk."

"I wasn't going to offer." Noah stated. "I was just gonna say you could probably get a ride from Mr. Schue or something."

"Oh." Rachel said feeling a blush creep over her cheeks. "Yeah. Good idea."

Noah just nodded and turned around heading out toward the parking lot without even a goodbye. _You should have offered her a ride. Wait. What the hell is that? Is that my conscience? When did I get one of those?_ Noah shook his head to himself, pushing back all thoughts telling him to turn back and tell Rachel she could grab a ride with him to the back of his brain.

Rachel watched as Puck just walked away feeling the blush start to disappear slightly. _Way to go, Rachel._

Before she could even go on yelling at herself for immediately assuming that he was offering her a ride the doors to McKinley swung open. The sound of a small crowd laughing made her jump and she spun around to find 6 or 7 football players walking out of the school. Including one Finn Hudson.

"I'm totally serious!"Finn was saying loudly as he walked backwards down the stairs. Because he was walking backwards Finn didn't notice the brunette and continued on without hesitation. "So then she…" he started when Hamilton from earlier that morning noticed Rachel and cleared his throat.

"Finn." He said scratching behind his ear uncomfortably.

Finn only glanced at Hamilton not entirely sure why he was shaking his head so he just brushed him off. "Anyway so then…"

"Finn!" Hamilton shouted this time.

"What?" Finn asked sounding somewhat annoyed with being interrupted yet again by the shorter boy.

Hamilton gestured to Rachel and all 6 of the football players and Finn turned around to find Rachel standing in the middle of the sidewalk just looking at them, tears begingin to form in her eyes.

_Oh God. He was talking about me. And they were laughing._

She noticed how Finn's already pale face turned a ghostly shade of white as the other football players snickered, scurrying off in the directions of their cars.

"Ra…Rachel. What are you doing out here?" he stuttered.

"I'm…I'm waiting for Mercedes to ask her for a ride home." Rachel said softly, continuing to stare at the tall boy in front of her.

"Oh." Finn said before lightly coughing as a crisp Ohio breeze swept through the air blowing Rachel's hair in to her face.

"Yeah." She replied simply as she tucked stray pieces of hair behind her ear. "Oh."

Rachel quickly spun around on her heels and with a tight grip on the handle of her backpack began to quickly make her way down the empty sidewalk.

"Rachel!" Finn called after her, much like the day before on the football field. And just like the day before he caught up to her quickly.

He grabbed her arm and turned her around to face him, cursing her god forsaken shoes in her mind. She _really_ needed to stop wearing heels if this was going to keep happening.

"That…what you just saw. It was nothing. I was just telling them about…"

"How big of a loser I am?" she chocked out, quickly snatching back her arm and beginning to walk again trying to keep her eyes to stop watering.

"No, Rachel!" Finn said walking quickly behind her. "Will you just stop?" he asked, grabbing her arm lightly again, the rolling of her backpack's wheels on the ground coming to a slow stop.

She slowly turned around and just stared at his face for a minute looking in to his big brown puppy dog eyes, looking desperately for the boy who she had met weeks ago. The one who had been kind, loving, and compassionate to everyone no matter what their social status. The one who had decided that it was okay to be in glee club _and_ football. The one who she had fallen in love with. But he was nowhere to be found.

Finn felt his heart stop cold as Rachel stared at him. Time seemed to stand still as she searched his eyes for whatever she was looking for. He hoped she found whatever that was. Because then maybe they could go back to the way things were before he left glee club. Maybe they could be friends again. But when he saw her face fall and her sad eyes move to the ground he knew that she hadn't found whatever it was she was looking for. And all hopes of their renewed friendship seemed to shatter in that one moment.

How was it possible for them to be so close, yet so far apart all in the same moment?

Suddenly Noah Puckerman's old beat up Eldorado pulled up next to the curb right beside where Rachel and Finn were standing.

The two teens didn't move from the way they were standing they just shifted their gaze to the black car as the passenger's side window rolled down.

Puck leaned over from the driver's side and looked between the two before looking over only at Rachel.

"Hey, Berry. Do you still want that ride?" he asked, glancing over at Finn momentarily seeing a flash of anger in his best friend's brown eyes.

Rachel turned and looked at Finn. "Yeah. That'd be great." She said speaking to Noah but never taking her eyes of the taller brunette.

Finn slowly released her arm and took a step back away from her.

Rachel bent over and picked up her backpack from the ground before taking a few extra steps and jumping in to Noah's car.

She dropped her backpack to the floor of the car before reaching over and grabbing her seat belt. She only glanced over for a second and suddenly her eyes were locked with Finn's, who was staring directly at her from outside. Noticing Finn still watching her, she quickly averted her gaze and turned forward in her seat again, closing her brown eyes willing herself not to cry for the second time that day because of Finn.

Having seen the whole thing from his car, Noah just looked at Rachel with concern. "You okay?" he asked not really knowing what to say or do.

"Just drive, Puckerman." Rachel commanded, keeping her eyes tightly closed.

In seconds the car was in drive and the two teens were off and out of the parking lot leaving a very heartsick Finn Hudson behind only to watch the car as it turned out of the school parking lot and disappeared from sight.

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**Ok so there you have it! Chapter 4!**

**Again, this took me forever because I originally wrote a longer chapter but then went back, realizing it was kinda crappy, and erased almost all of it and came up with this last whole Finn/Rachel scene! Originally this WHOLE chapter was a Puck and Rachel chapter without any other characters at all but when I read through it, I had written sort of so that both were out of character and I didn't like that so I deleted all of it and kept just the beginning.**

**I really hope both the Puckleberry and Finn/Rachel interaction pleased both groups of people!**

**Ok so like always REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW!!! **

**Love,**

**ASmith7642**


	5. Chapter 5: A Hard Day's Night

**Hey yall!**

**Ok I'm gonna tell you right now…this chapter sucks. I don't like it AT ALL! I've been having a terrible case of writers block over the past week. There were so many versions of this chapter that I wrote… but they all pretty much sucked and this is probably the best of the few so this is what I posted…hopefully I'll think of some ideas and get out of my writers-block-funk :) lol**

**So anyway here is chapter 5. As always reviews are very much appreciated! And if anyone has any ideas for this story…let me know…who knows…maybe they'll help me get out of my writers block!**

**So here it is…ENJOY!!!**

**P.S. Sorry for such a long delay…usually I'm pretty quick to update**

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Chapter 5  
A Hard Day's Night

Today was a day for junk food.

That was all Rachel could think about since getting home a few hours ago. Immediately after walking through the door she had hungrily searched through her cupboards to find that the closest thing to junk food they had in their health crazy household was low fat, organic chocolate milk.

Knowing that her fathers usually stopped at the store on the way home from work on Friday nights, Rachel waited for them occupying herself by practicing her solo for Glee. Unfortunately for her, about an hour ago she received at a text from daddy stating they would be home late tonight so they wouldn't be stopping at the store tonight. Ergo: no junk food.

And that's why she had just walked from her house to the nearest drug store in the pouring rain.

As she stepped in to the small convenient store she had never longed for a cup of hot chocolate so much in her life. Yet for some reason her feet were leading her to the frozen section at the back of the store.

Why was it that whenever someone needed a good cry that they bought ice-cream no matter what the weather?

And that's what she needed right now. To cry. Not only had the boy she thought she loved thrown a slushie in her but she had also come to the conclusion that he was no longer the boy she thought she knew. Oh and to top _that_ off there was a new girl at school who had decided to come in and take over _her_ glee club. Yeah. Crying and junk food were definitely needed.

When Rachel reached the back of the store she slowly reached in to the freezer and pulled out a pint of Ben and Jerry's chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. She sighed looking down at the ice cream in her hand. _This is sad._

_I shouldn't be letting Finn Hudson run my life. I shouldn't…_Rachel sighed again. _Aw, screw it. _She wasn't up for her own personal pep talk today she thought as she slammed the freezer door closed.

After the freezer door closed she just stood there for a minute suddenly hearing the faint sound of humming coming from just a few aisles down.

Rachel slowly approached the aisle, the humming growing louder and louder, when suddenly Rachel realized it wasn't humming, it was singing. Not just any singing, Rachel realized as she peaked from around the corner of the aisle next to it. It was Noah Puckerman singing.

As the song ended and the radio DJ came back on repeating both the name of the song and the band for those who had missed it before Puck dipped his mop into the murky water yet again. The radio went to a different song and he continued to sing to the music pouring out of his oversized headphones as he mopped the floor of Smith's Family Drug Store.

_This_ was his job.

Yeah, he had the pool cleaning business but he lived in Ohio. Pools were only open for so long. So he had applied for one here.

The job totally sucked but it was a way to get some money for Quinn and the baby. Not much but it was better than nothing which is more then what Finn could say.

Noah grumbled to himself at the thought of his best friend (or ex-best friend. He wasn't even sure anymore) He still didn't get it.

What was so special about Finn? Not only had Quinn picked Finn over him but Rachel had too. What the hell was wrong with him? He was a stud after all.

And not only that, but Finn got to be the father to _his_ baby. The baby no one would ever know was his. How unfair was that?

Puck swept all this to the back of his mind where he was forced to keep it for a good portion of the day and went back to singing and mopping.

Rachel watched as Puck sang soulfully in to the top of the mop swinging it around with his eyes closed. She couldn't help but crack a small smile. Slowly she began to approach him when suddenly she felt her Moccasins slip out from under her.

"Ah!" she yelped as she fell backwards on the wet floor and landed with a thud.

At the unexpected sound Puck whipped around, tugging the headphones off his head, to find Rachel Berry lying in a small puddle on the floor.

"Rachel?" Puck asked just looking down at the petite brunette, seemingly frozen in place.

Rachel looked at him briefly and didn't respond. Instead she just pressed her palms to the floor and pushed herself up off the ground. When she stood she closed her eyes and wrinkled her nose as she felt the gross water from the floor soaking in to her jeans and beginning to run down her already cold legs. _And this night just keeps getting better and better…_

"Rachel, what are you doing here?" Noah said trying to seem as calm as possible hoping that she hadn't heard anything he had just mumbled about Quinn, the baby, or Finn because God only knows what would happen if Rachel Berry found out.

"Just running a few errands." Rachel explained crossing her arms behind her back trying to hide the fact that her 'few errands' was getting a carton of ice cream to eat while she cried and listened to sappy music.

Puck nodded rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly trying to seem as casual as possible.

"You work here now?" she asked gesturing to the mop.

Before he could respond the booming voice of the manger of the store, Mr. Andrew Smith, came from behind him making both teens jump. "Puckerman!" he yelled before stomping over to the Mohawk wearing high-schooler, clenching on to a yellow sign.

Puck sighed, letting his head drop, and slowly turned around towards his quickly balding boss as he stomped his way over to the couple in the center of the aisle.

"How many times have I told you? You _have_ to put up the sign!" he scolded placing the yellow WET FLOOR sign between him and his employee.

Puck restrained himself from rolling his eyes at his boss as Mr. Smith took a step towards Rachel. "Are you alright, Miss? I heard you scream from the front of the store?" he asked his voice changing from stern to caring in seconds.

Rachel glanced at Noah over Mr. Smith's shoulder noticing his grim expression and smiled sweetly at the man. "I'm fine. Thank you." Rachel replied with a charming smile. "But a towel would be nice…"

"Of course." The manger said without a beat of hesitation. You could tell by the tone in his voice he didn't _really_ care about Rachel, he just knew that if she wanted to she could sue them. But either way she was getting what she wanted so she didn't mind.

"Noah!" he demanded snapping his head to look up at him.

"For the last time, it's Puck." He corrected through clenched teeth wishing desperately that he could throw his boss in to a dumpster like he did to the losers at school.

The manger ignored him and continued. "Please take this _lovely_ young lady to the back and get her cleaned up." He commanded smiling at her as he said lovely. "And then you can use your break to drive her home." He finished with a nod.

"But…" Noah began to protest when Mr. Smith shot him daggers and caused him to snap his mouth shut almost instantly.

Mr. Smith smiled at Rachel once more before beginning to walk across the wet floor shooting Puck a warning glance as he walked by and toward the front of the store again.

Puck glared at the back of his manger's head dropping the mop back in to bucket forcefully. A few droplets of water flew out and landed on his jeans but he could've cared less. Leaving the bucket in the center of the aisle, with his fist clenched, he began to make his way to the back room.

Rachel just watched as he angrily walked away not sure if she should follow him or not.

"Get a move on, Hannah Montana!" He commanded not bothering to even glance back at her before turning the corner.

_I guess that answers that._ Rachel quickly, but cautiously made her way across the floor and caught up with Puck as they reached the swinging door marked employees only in the back. There wasn't much back there. Basically just sets of lockers. Puck was already opening his locker and ripping off the ugly itchy blue vest he was forced to wear as a part of the job. "Just sit on the bench I'm gonna go…look for some towels." He said before walking through another set of swinging doors, already knowing there probably wouldn't be any around here.

A few minutes later after not really even looking all that hard he came back to find Rachel sitting on the bench with tears shining in her brown eyes.

Noah stopped short hoping she hadn't seen him yet and he could actually go back and look for the towels until she was done being…a girl. But it was too late. The door swung shut behind him with a loud squeak. _Damn._

Rachel jumped slightly at the sound glancing only slightly at Puck before turning away and rubbing furiously at her eyes. _God why did I have to start thinking about _him_ again!_

He just stood there for a minute just looking at her not sure if he should approach her or just leave her alone. He was never good with handling _this_. Girl's crying. It always made him feel weird.

Rachel sniffled and glanced over at Noah who was just staring at her. For a minute she held his stare but then turned away and sniffled again.

With a deep breath he took a step closer to the bench. Slowly he sat down beside the sniffling brunette and sighed. She was staring straight ahead, her eyes locked to locker 34. Her eyes were red and puffy and her bottom lip was slightly quivering even though you could tell she was trying to make it stop.

"Are…are you ok?" he offered, stuffing his hands in his pockets not entirely sure what to do with them.

"Can you just take me home?" she said sharply, ignoring his question.

Noah opened his mouth slightly but deciding against and shut it, just nodding. Together they stood from the bench, awkwardly running in to each other.

"It's…I'll go..." Puck stuttered before shutting his mouth again and turning the opposite direction without another word.

Rachel followed silently behind him through the store and to his car in the back of the parking lot where it was no longer raining.

Just as Rachel had settled herself in to the buttery leather seats of his car she heard Puck snort as the engine roared to life. "Shoplifter." He said with a smirk. By the puzzled look on Rachel's face Puck could see didn't understand so he gestured to the ice cream that was still clenched tightly in her hands. She glanced down, having completely forgotten about the quickly melting ice cream sitting in her hands.

"Don't sweat it." Puck said noting her pale expression. "I do it all the time." He admitted with a shrug before pressing on the gas pedal and making his way out of the parking lot.

Just like earlier that day for a good portion of the ride the car was completely silent aside from the low rumble of the engine and the squeak of the windshield wipers.

Puck let out a frustrated sigh the silence beginning to irritate him. This was getting ridiculous. He knew the chick was annoying as hell but there had to be something the two could talk about.

"So," He started not really sure where he was going with it. Just as he began to talk Rachel's phone let out a loud bleep. At almost the same time Noah's let out a low hum from the very bottom of his jean's pocket.

Instantly Rachel had her phone flipped open and was squinting at the small text as she read aloud. "Glee club bake sale tomorrow. The Lima Mall. 8:00 a.m." Rachel said snapping her phone shut just as Puck had fished his out of his pocket. When he flipped it open he found he had the same text from Mercedes. Closing his phone with a grunt he tossed it in the empty cup holder.

"Same?" she asked tucking the phone in to her pocket.

"Yeah." Puck replied, practically groaning at the thought of having to wake up at 7 to get to the mall by 8 to sell damn cookies and cupcakes. Who the hell was gonna buy god damn sweets in the morning anyway?

"It should be fun." Rachel said weakly crossing her arms over her chest free.

"You don't sound too convinced." Noah pointed out.

"Whatever." Rachel scoffed looking out the window again.

Puck shook his head and laughed.

"What?"

"Nothing." He said still chuckling to himself.

Rachel rolled her eyes and looked back out the window, really looking for the first time noticing they were nowhere near her house. "What are you doing?"

"We have to make a detour at my house before I take you home." Puck stated turning down dark side street.

"Why?"

"I told my mom I would come home and tuck in my little sister on my break but instead I got stuck taking you home." He replied bitterly. "Way to go klutz."

"Put up the sign next time and then we won't have this problem!"

Puck just rolled his eyes and he slid his car next to his mom's Ford Taurus in the drive way. "Stay here." He commanded as he unbuckled his seat belt. He opened the door and jumped out before slamming it shut so loud it made Rachel jump.

Her hand flew to her chest in shock but after her heart stopped racing again after a few seconds she lowered it. As she watched Noah begin to make his way to the front door she saw his mom step out of the front door and became visible under the porch light. She looked a lot different then she pictured. She was short with a thin frame and had straight brown hair just past her shoulder blades. She wore a long gray sweater and a Star of David necklace like her own that gleamed in the porch light.

The two stood there and what looked like argued for a few seconds when her eyes slid back over to Noah's Eldorado and landed on Rachel. Even from the far distance between her and the porch she could almost instantly see that she had the same almond shaped, green eyes as Noah. They just looked at each other for a moment before Mrs. Puckerman looked away quickly back to her son. She said a few more words before turning around and walking back in to the house leaving Noah alone on the porch.

He stood there for a minute before turning around, his jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed as he made his way back to the car muttering a few angry words to himself.

Even though she had seen him coming, when he swung the door open Rachel still jumped slightly when he stuck his head in.

"Get out of the car."

"What?" Rachel asked confused, Noah's eyes still narrow.

"Get out of the car and come inside." He repeated before slamming the door shut again.

In the amount of time it took her to unbuckle her seat belt Noah had rounded the car and opened her door. She hopped out of the car, her still somewhat wet Moccasins from her fall earlier hitting the pavement with a thwack.

"What am I doing?" she whispered to Puck as he slammed the door shut for her.

"My mom wants to meet you." He grumbled, placing a hand on the small of her back and leading her to the front porch.

"What?!" Rachel snapped beginning to panic. She had never met some else's parents before like this. Sure when she was younger she knew parents when they helped out at school but she had never gone to some else's house before and met their mother. Especially the mother of boy who had up until a few days prior had made it his goal to throw slushies in her face on a weekly basis. How was she going to say anything nice about him with a straight face?

"I told her you were a friend from school I ran in to when I was studying at the library and you had needed a ride home."

"But you weren't at the…"

"Shut up." Noah said with clenched teeth as they walked in to the house side by side.

The house was really small but in a comfy way. As she stripped herself of her pink rain coat she looked around, noticing that the TV in the living room was playing a rerun of I Love Lucy, her favorite show of all time.

"Don't say anything. Just say hello, smile, and then excuse yourself to the bathroom. When I'm done with my little sister I'll knock on the door and let you know it's okay to come out. You got that?" he instructed, leaning down to whisper all this in her ear. He didn't need his mother finding out Rachel was not only Jewish but also the most parent pleasing girl Noah had ever brought home. Well the only other girl he had really brought home was Santana and she had only met his mom by accident because she had caught the two making out on his bed.

She nodded slightly not even fully sure of what she had just agreed to, having been too entranced as she looked around Noah's house.

"Mom?" Noah called as the two teenagers stepped in to the only fully lit room in the whole house, the kitchen. Ms. Puckerman finished pouring the contents of the coffee pot in to her ceramic mug and turned around, a warm smile gracing her thin lips.

"Hi, honey." She greeted as if she hadn't just greeted him at the door less than two minutes ago. "Who's your friend?" she asked taking a seat at the round dinner table.

"Oh," he said as if forgetting she had been there. "This is Rachel Berry." "Rachel this is my mom."

Rachel smiled nervously. "It's very nice to meet you Ms. Puckerman." she said taking a step closer and shaking hands with her.

Puck watched silently hopping his mother wouldn't notice the identical Star of David necklace around Rachel's neck. He didn't need his mom bugging him about going out with her. He had already done that and it had failed. Horribly! And he didn't plan of going through that again.

When Ms. Puckerman offered Rachel a seat Puck shot her a quick warning glance not to stay long before making his way to his sister, Hannah's room.

"Can I get you something to drink, sweetheart?" Ms. Puckerman asked.

"A glass of water would be lovely." Rachel said folding her hands together on the table. She wasn't all that thirsty but having water would seem like a plausible excuse for having to go to the bathroom.

"Here you go." She said returning to the table with a glass filled to the top with cold water.

"Thank you." Rachel said with a smile before taking a sip, careful not to spill any on herself. Though it wouldn't have mattered, she was already soaked from both the rain (despite her umbrella) and slipping in that puddle.

"So how do you and Noah know each other?" Ms. Puckerman asked before bring the coffee mug to her lips and taking a long sip.

"We've known each other for a while now." Rachel said, holding back from adding that fact because he would throw things at me. "But we've recently bonded over glee club."

"You're in the glee club?" she asked raising and eyebrow with a smile.

"Oh yes. Next to grades, glee club is my top priority." Rachel said with a reassuring nod before taking another long sip from her glass of water.

Ms. Puckerman's face lit up as Rachel placed the glass back on the table. "Can you point me in the direction of the rest room?" Rachel asked standing from the chair.

"Of course. It's the last door down that hallway." She replied pointing to the hallway Noah had disappeared down minutes ago. Rachel nodded shooting the older woman an appreciative smile before disappearing down the dark hallway.

Slowly she walked down the hall that was only lit by a dying light bulb in the middle of the long walk way. All the doors were closed except for one that was just slightly open. Rachel crept silently over to the door and smiled at the sound of Puck's soothing voice as he read the ending to Rapunzel to his little sister.

"And they lived happily ever after. The end." He said to Hannah who despite the fact that she had just been read a bed time story was looking bright eyed at Noah. He softly closed the book when Hannah piped up.

"Do you believe in happy endings, Noah?" she asked shifting slightly so she was turned towards her older brother.

Rachel stood flat against the wall listening closely as Noah let out a hearty sigh having to really think about that question for a minute. "Yeah." He replied with a nod. "Yeah. I do."

"So you think it's possible for me to marry prince charming?" the 7 year old asked hopefully.

Noah smiled. "I don't really believe in those kinds of happy endings. I believe that there's a reason that everyone was put on this Earth and if that person finds that reason then they have found their happy ending."

Rachel felt her heart flutter in her chest. _Wow. Did Noah Puckerman really just say that?_

"What if my reason I was put on this Earth is to marry prince charming!" Hannah replied happily with a smile.

Noah chuckled and shook his. "Anything's possible." He said standing from the edge of the bed and patting his little sister's knee. "Except for me letting you stay up any later. That _isn't_ possible." He said with a smile.

"But it's Friday!" the young child complained.

Noah just shook his head. "You have dance class early tomorrow morning. You have to go to bed or you'll never wake up in time."

"Fine." She grumbled crossing her arms over her chest as Noah reached over and grabbed the top of her purple comforter, folding it over her small body.

He kissed the top of her head and smiled at his sister. "Goodnight, Hannah-Banana." He said ruffling her hair.

"Goodnight, Noah-Boa." she said with a laugh.

Noah flicked off the bed side table lamp and walked out of the room closing the already slightly open door behind him softly. When he turned he ran right in to Rachel. To keep himself from falling backwards he grabbed on to her wrists making both of them look right at each other. It took Noah a moment to fully comprehend what was going on but once he had his eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked in a low, angry tone still tightly gripping on to her wrists.

"I was...Just on…The bathroom…" Rachel stuttered looking around for help in the very dimly lit hallway. The look of anger in Puck's eyes made Rachel almost fear for her life. She would have backed up but she was already pressed up against the wall so she was stuck. Not entirely sure what he was about to do Rachel turned her head to the side and shut her eyes tightly in fear.

Suddenly Noah's face softened and his breathing became shallow just looking at Rachel for a minute, studying her face in the dim light. She really was pretty. The light was perfect for her features and her lip gloss glistened on her pink, soft lips. _Why do I have the sudden urge to kiss her?_

When Rachel didn't feel anything she opened one eye and looked at Noah who was just staring at her. She opened both eyes and turned her head back so she was fully facing him. His breath was hot on her neck and he smelled of oranges and Axe body spray. _Why do I have the sudden urge to kiss him?_

Just as Puck was leaning in very slowly he stopped at the sound of another voice.

"What's going on here?" Ms. Puckerman jumped in making Noah practically jump to the other side of the hall.

The two teens looked at the older woman who was just smirking at them both and then back to each other.

"We were just…umm…" _What were we just doing?_

Ms. Puckerman held up a hand telling her son to stop talking. "It's alright. I was a teenager once myself." She said with a wink before turning around and walking back in to the kitchen without another word to either of them.

Puck stood there dumbfounded for a minute trying to comprehend all that had just happened. He wasn't entirely sure which event was more embarrassing: Being caught about to make out with Rachel Berry or having your mom catch you and being okay with it.

Rachel heart rate was beginning to slow down and her breathing returning to normal. _Most messed up day _ever_!_

The two teens exchange another glance but both quickly looked away.

"Come on." Puck said in a low tone, beginning to walk towards the front door. "I'm taking you home."

* * *

Minutes later the couple sat silently together in the car for the third time that day. Every few seconds they would glance at the other from the corner of their eyes hoping the other would say something but they both stayed quiet.

"Which one is it?" Puck asked speaking for the first time the whole ride as they reached her street. He had been to her house before but that was in the day time where he could actually see the house and not just the front porch.

"Keep going." She instructed, Noah slowing his car to survey the houses. Once half way down the street Rachel spoke up again and said "That one." As she pointed to the double floored, all white house with a single bright porch light on her side of the car.

Puck pulled the car to the side of the street and put the car in park.

"Thanks for the ride."Rachel said quickly gathering her things together, not wanting to spend another minute in that car.

"Whatever." He said slinging his arm over the back of her seat carelessly, a bored expression on his face.

Rachel rolled her eyes silently to herself as she jumped out of the car. She closed the door behind her and began to make her way across the still somewhat wet grass when she heard Puck's window roll down behind her.

"Hey, Berry!" he called out to her.

Rachel spun around quickly, hugging on tightly to her pink rain coat with the ice cream melting away in her hands.

"If it makes a difference," Noah started glancing away for a moment before looking back at Rachel. "I'm sorry."

Before Rachel could even open her mouth to ask what for Noah already had thrown the car in drive and was on his way down the street.

Once inside the house Rachel sighed, ripping the lid off of the ice cream and walking towards the kitchen to find the biggest spoon they had. If it hadn't been a night for junk food before, it sure as hell was now.

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**So yes…I totally suck! Not only did I have a long delay but I also gave you a pretty crappy chapter too!**

**Please tell me what you think!!!! The good, the bad, ideas. All of it. Thanks so much!!!**

**Love,**

**ASmith7642/Adorkable97 :)**


	6. Chapter 6: There's A Reason

**Disclaimer: (sigh) I do not own Glee**

**Thanks for the reviews guys…I even got a few favorite author subscriptions which made me smile :) Also I'm really happy you guys liked the last chapter! I plan on having chapters around that length from now on but that could also mean less frequent updates…maybe like once or twice a week instead of every other day or so which I had originally planned.**

**I'm gonna ramble on later so here is chapter 6! ENJOY!!**

**P.S. In this chapter Tina talks for the first time in the story and for the progression of the story line the fact that she didn't really have a stutter was revealed back in 1:08…ok? Awesome!**

**P.S.S I particularly loved chrpangel's review :) lol thanks so much! I'm glad you liked it!**

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Chapter 6  
There's A Reason

Rachel sat completely still in the passenger's seat of her father's Hybrid with her forehead pressed against the window watching as other cars whizzed by in a daze.

"Why am I doing this again?" she asked, thinking this to herself. A bake sale for the glee club was a good idea and all but it wasn't like anyone really wanted her there. She was just another body taking up space to most of the fellow glee club members.

"Honey?" her dad asked slowly reaching over and lightly touching her elbow. "Are you okay?"

Rachel blinked a few times to bring herself out of thought, looking at her father as he adjusted his wired glasses. "I'm fine." Rachel said reassuringly as the two pulled in to the mall's parking lot.

"Okay…"

"Really. I'm fine." Rachel said noticing the 'I don't believe you tone' in her father's voice.

Mr. Berry just nodded as he pulled in to a parking spot toward the front of the lot.

"I'll see you later dad." Rachel said leaning over and placing a kiss on his cheek leaving a small stain of her pink frosty lip gloss. He smiled as Rachel jumped out of the car, swinging her oversized tote bag over her shoulder.

When she had made her way successfully across the parking lot and into the big complex she walked around for over 30 minutes looking for a familiar face but never finding one. Being the stubborn person she was she gave up with a grunt and pulled out her cell phone looking through her contacts for Kurt's number.

When she pressed the cold metal to her ear it rang twice before someone answered. "Kurt Hummel speaking, how may I assist you?"

"Where are you guys?" Rachel said rounding the food court for the fifth time.

"Oh." Kurt said sounding saddened. "It's just Rachel." He said off to either Mercedes or Tina, she assumed. "We thought you were Mr. Schue." he explained.

"He's not here yet?"

"Nope."

"He'll probably be here soon." Rachel confirmed. "But where are you guys?"

"By the east entrance." Kurt said quickly before snapping his phone shut.

Rachel sighed dropping the phone in to her bag and making her way from the opposite side of the mall. She never fully understood how, nor why such a small town had such a big mall.

When she finally reached the big glass doors on the east wing (the opposite side of where her father dropped her off) she smiled happily seeing the back of Noah's shaved head. _Finally._

She pushed her way through the doors and walked over to the table where everyone was sitting wrapped tightly in sweaters, huddled close together. The sky was gray, like the night before, but instead of raining it was just freezing cold.

"Hey, Rachel." Ali greeted warmly with a wave from the bench where she sat next to Kurt who was inspecting his nails at the moment.

Rachel just fake-smiled as she took her place at the end of the line standing next to Mike.

Ali's face fell slightly at the brunette's reaction but brushed it off as best as she could and stood from the bench. "I'm going inside to get some hot chocolate. Anyone want some?" Ali said holding up two 20 dollar bills.

"You don't need to bribe us, honey." Kurt said with a smile and small chuckle. "You're one of us now."

Ali couldn't help but beam as Kurt pulled out his own money from his valor change purse and handing it to her. The other members of the club nodded in agreement reaching in to their pockets for their own money.

"You want something, Rachel?" she asked one foot already in the door.

"I'm fine. Thank you." Rachel said. The blonde just nodded once before making her way inside, the door softly shutting behind her.

"You could be a little more pleasant, Rachel." Kurt scolded with a glare.

Rachel rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Where are all that cookies?" she asked noting the lack of _anything_ on the table the glee club was circled around.

"With Mr. Schue." Artie informed her from the under the hood of his sweatshirt.

"Great." Rachel groaned, glancing out in to the parking lot in hopes of seeing Mr. Schue's GLEE license plate with no luck.

"Try calling him again, Matt." Mercedes said.

Matt nodded and pulled his phone out of his pocket, dialing the number Mr. Schue had all given them in case of a 'glee club emergency'.

Rachel took Matt's spot on the bench crossing her arms over her chest as a cold wind blew through the air. "Can someone tell me why we couldn't have put our table _inside_?"

"We tried. They said that all 'designated sale areas were occupied today.' What kind of crap is that?" Santana commented with a roll of her eyes as she tightened her Cheerios jacket around her thin frame.

"No answer." Matt said holding up his phone as he walked back over to the group. "Again."

"This is getting ridiculous." Quinn said as she slipped her phone in to the pocket of her own jacket. "We should just go home. There's no point in us being here if we have nothing to sell!"

"But what about Artie?" Tina asked comfortably placing a hand on the back of his wheelchair.

"He'll just have to go with his dad. You understand, right Artie?"

"Sure." Artie said managing to muster up a smile at the blonde ex-cheerleader.

"Wait a second." Mercedes said, her voice booming as she stood from the bench. "I did not wake my ass up at 6:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning just to go home with nothing. We're staying until Mr. Schue calls." She commanded eyeing everyone as if warning them not to disagree.

Everyone sighed with a simple nod as Mercedes took her seat on the bench once again with a triumphant grin. Artie smiled at her appreciatively and stuck his earphones back in his ears.

"So what do think of the newest edition to the glee club, Rachel?" Kurt asked turning to her and crossing his legs at the knee. Everyone's side conversations stopped for the time being, interested in hearing her answer.

Rachel noticed that everyone leaned in slightly to hear her reply which made her squirm now suddenly feeling under pressure. She stole a glance at Puck who just was smiling at her as if already knowing her answer. Everyone knew her answer already. But they wanted to hear it come out of her mouth.

Rachel straightened up and smiled at Kurt. "I don't really know her yet, Kurt." She explained simply with a shrug picking her bag off the ground pretending to look for something, avoiding eye contact with the others.

Kurt's face fell slightly not having expected such a simple answer. He nodded silently and turned to his other side beginning to talk quietly with Mercedes.

Everyone slowly went back to what they had been doing except for Puck who just continued to look at Rachel. Taking a step in her direction she looked up in to his smiling green eyes.

"Hello, Noah." She said simply as she finished applying a new coat of lip gloss.

"Nice answer." He said with a glint his eyes.

"It was the truth." She replied dropped the make-up tube carelessly to the bottom of her tote.

Puck rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say, Hannah Montana."

Just as he opened his mouth to say something else Ali pushed open the doors with her back, her hands filled with the carriers holding the hot chocolate. "Order up." She said with a grin as she approached the group. Everyone grabbed a cup, each containing the same sweet drink thanking her as they took it.

"I got you one anyways, Rachel." She said gesturing to the last white Styrofoam cup in the cup holder. "Just in case."

Rachel smiled slightly. "Thanks, Ali." She said slowly reaching for the cup. When her hand touched the hot cup a sensation ran through out her cold body now longing for a jacket more than ever.

"No problem." She flashed the brunette a small smile before walking over to where Artie, Tina, and Brittney all stood talking.

Noah opened his mouth again but this time it was Quinn who interrupted.

"Puck!" she yelled waving him over her hazel eyes flashing with anger.

Rachel and Puck shared look before he walked toward what looked to be very angry blonde. Rachel watched as the two began to converse in hushed tones. She couldn't help but notice the vulnerable expression on Noah's face that he only ever seemed to show to Quinn. It was obvious her liked her. The way he looked at her said it all.

Rachel dropped her eyes to the ground when suddenly she heard the low rumble of an engine. Hoping it was Mr. Schue everyone looked up excitedly but when they saw the tall, football captain exit the car everyone's faces dropped except for Quinn who smiled as he approached her.

Rachel almost felt bad for Finn when she looked at him. He looked horrible. His face looked paler than usual, his brown eyes had very apparent, dark circles underneath them, and he looked like he could cry at any minute.

A part of Rachel wanted to rush up to him and give him a hug and another part of her, the part of her that thought about how much he had hurt her over the past couple of weeks, wanted to slap him. So she just stayed seated.

Finn shot a quick glance at everyone in the Glee club, his glance at Rachel lingering a little too long. A pang of sadness and regret rushed through him at the sight of her. He was a jerk. He knew that. And he felt horrible about everything he had done to Rachel. He had played around with her heart and he knew exactly what he was doing when he had done it. He wanted nothing more than for her to just forgive him and realize that his intentions weren't evil or malicious. It had been for the benefit of his child.

Rachel shifted her gaze to ground, biting the inside of her cheek, begging her eyes not to water which thankfully they didn't.

"You ready to go?" he asked softly, placing a hand on the small of her back as he reached Quinn's side.

"Yeah let me just go grab my bag." Quinn said walking away, brushing past Puck to retrieve her brown satchel on the bench next to Mercedes.

Finn looked over where he and Puck's hard eyes met. "Hey man." Finn greeted casually. He hadn't talked to him since he had picked football and Puck had picked Glee a few days ago. He hadn't really talked to anyone in Glee. Except for Quinn. And Rachel, but that hadn't worked out so well for either of them.

"Hey." Puck said his jaw clenching as Quinn returned.

"Where are you going anyway?" Brittney asked having now moved from Artie's side to Santana's.

"Doctor's appointment." Quinn explained. "I'll see you guys. Good luck."

Everyone was still dead silent as they all slightly waved to Quinn as Finn led her to the passenger's side. Once Quinn was in her seat Finn slammed the door shut behind her and rounded the car stealing another quick glance at the petite brunette who sat on the bench, her eyes glued to the ground.

He sighed softly before jumping inside his car and starting up the engine again, slowly driving away.

"Who was that?" Ali spoke up from the back.

"Quinn's boyfriend, Finn." Santana said with a glare at Ali as if to say 'so back off.'

"As well as an ex-member of the glee club." Kurt said with a bitter tone when he spat the word 'ex'.

"Oh." Ali said slowly looking around and noticing the pained look on Rachel's face as she shivered in the cold wind again.

Kurt let out a huff and he and Mercedes stood from the bench announcing that they were going to find the ladies room before the two waltz inside.

"Can I sit?" Ali asked Rachel gesturing to the now empty spot next to her. Rachel brought the hot chocolate to her lips and nodded before taking a good, long sip thankful the blond had bought it for her despite her initial decline.

They were silent for a moment, neither sure what to say. "Was that him?" Ali finally asked.

Rachel looked up from the ground and just stared at her, blinking a few times before she spoke up again.

"Was he the reason I found you crying in the bathroom the yesterday?"

Rachel continued just to stare at her. If it had been any other day Rachel would have told her to stay out of other people's business but she was too drained from all the crying the night before to even argue with her. The brunette nodded and sighed. "Is it that obvious?"

Ali just shrugged. "I'm just a pretty observant person." She confessed.

Rachel nodded again. "It doesn't really matter though. If you hadn't noticed his girlfriend is pregnant. There's no way they're ever breaking up." Rachel said longingly looking over at Puck who was now talking with Santana, remembering the exact words he had said on the bleachers to her days before.

"Everything happens for a reason. If they never break up, it just means that you were meant to find someone different…Maybe someone like that yummy Noah Puckerman." Ali said with a grin.

"Puck?" Rachel repeated making sure she had heard her right. Ali nodded. Rachel blushed and shook her head. "I don't think so."

Ali shrugged again. "You never know."

With that Ali stood from the bench and walked away over to where Mike and Matt sat discussing the Ohio State game the night before.

Rachel looked over at Noah who was now engrossed in his cell phone and snorted at even the thought. _No way._

Matt's cell phone suddenly rang loudly throughout the entrance and everyone stopped, watching as he pulled it out of his pocket. "Hello?" he answered. Matt's face lit up after a few seconds. "It's Mr. Schue!" he yelled happily everyone walking over to where he and Mike were sitting.

"What is he saying?" Santana asked after a few seconds of silence. Matt held up a hand telling her to stop talking so he could hear.

"Alright…alright…ok…I'll tell them…see ya later Mr. Schue." Matt snapped his phone shut with a defeated sigh.

"What's going on?"

"His wife, that wacked out nurse who gave us all drugs, is pregnant and she was just rushed to the hospital."

"So just to clarify, he's not coming?" Ali asked.

"Uh, yeah." Matt said. "He said he was really sorry. And that maybe we could try something at school or next weekend."

"What happened?" Kurt called as he and Mercedes walked out arm and arm.

"Mr. Schue's not coming. There was something with his wife."

"Well that sucks. I'm sorry, Artie."

Artie shrugged trying to his own frown. "It's ok Mercedes. I'll just go with my dad."

"I guess there really isn't any point in us being here anymore." Mike pointed out as he stuffed his hands in to his letterman's jacket. The group slowly began to say their goodbyes and part ways when a voice called them back.

"Wait!" Ali yelled making all of them stop.

Everyone turned to look at the blonde whose face was now full of light and energy. "Puck, do you have your guitar?" she asked.

He nodded. "I never leave home without it. Why?"

"Just go get it. I have an idea."

* * *

Noah placed his guitar case on the table and swung what sometimes felt like his only friend over his shoulder and began to lightly tune the guitar.

"Do you think this is going to work?" Tina asked sounding somewhat doubtful.

"Trust me. It'll work." Ali insured them as she straightened out her long sleeved electric blue top.

As yet another cold wind blew through the frigid Lima, Ohio air Rachel's teeth chattered making Noah's skin crawl. The sound of teeth chattering to him was like what nails on a chalk board sounded like to most people.

"Berry."

The brunette whipped around to find Noah stripping off his jacket and holding it out for her.

"Here" He offered. "I can't stand to hear your teeth chatter one more time." He said shaking his head as the sound repeated itself in brain.

Rachel slowly reached for the jacket noticing Ali smiling from the corner of her eye. "Thanks Noah." Rachel said slowly as she shrugged on the very warm jacket. The sleeves were way too long and it was huge on her but it couldn't have been more perfect.

Ali and Rachel exchanged a quick glance before Ali turned back to the boys where she was explaining their part.

"You got it?" she asked. The boys all nodded; looking at one another to make sure everyone else got it. "Great!" she exclaimed clasping her hands together.

"Okay. Let's start." She said fitting back into her spot in line in between Tina and Santana, shooting Puck the sign to start playing.

When Puck started slowly strumming the cords to his guitar everyone quieted around him.

_I remember what you wore on our first day  
You came into my life  
And I thought hey  
You know this could be something  
'Cause everything you do and words you say  
You know that it all takes my breath away  
And now I'm left with nothing_

_  
So maybe it's true, that I can't live without you  
And maybe two is better than one  
But there's so much time, to figure out the best in my life  
And you've already got me coming undone  
And I'm thinking two, is better than one._

I remember every look upon your face,  
The way you roll your eyes, the way you taste  
You make it hard for breathing  
'Cause when I close my eyes and drift away  
I think of you and everything's okay  
And finally now, believing

And maybe it's true, that I can't live without you  
Well maybe two is better than one  
But there's so much time, to figure out the best in my life  
And you've already got me coming undone  
And I'm thinking two, is better than one

Yeah, yeah

I remember what you wore on our first day  
You came into my life  
And I thought hey

Maybe it's true, that I can't live without you  
Maybe two is better than one  
But there's so much time, to figure out the best in my life  
And you've already got me coming undone  
And I'm thinking

Oooh I can't live without you  
'Cause baby two is better than one  
There's so much time, to figure out the best in my life  
And I've figured out with all that's said and done  
Two, is better than one

Two is better than one.

When the song came to an end and Puck strummed the last cord the crowd that had formed around them erupted in applause, emptying out their pockets and placing any left over money in the guitar case.

Rachel smiled at the on-lookers. She closed her eyes and took in the applause, blocking out the rest of the world besides her and the audience wishing things could stay like this forever. In a little bit, when whatever this was was over, her world would go back to its normal chaos but for now, in this moment, everything was just perfect.

* * *

**Sorry for such a bad way to end the chapter but I couldn't think of anything…but the main thing at the end was basically the mini impromptu concert…the song (if you didn't know) was Two Is Better Than One by Boys Like Girls which I'm absolutely obsessed with and totally thought it would be a good group/duet type thing.**

**This chapter was mostly filler but some parts of it may come back in to play later in the story…the next couple chapters will be mostly building up to something that I think a lot of you will like that I have planned in the near future but for now be patient :)**

**Ok so tell me what you think…Bad? Good? Puckleberry? Finachel?...LET ME KNOW!!! REVIEWS MAKE MY DAY!!!! (as well as update faster …just sayin =D)**

**Love,**

**Adorkable97 :)**


	7. Chapter 7: He's Back and I'm Blue

**You guys have no idea how happy you made me with all the good reviews!! =D Thanks so much!**

**I did get one review saying that they didn't like the Ali character and found her pointless and I have to say that I see where you're coming from…she's actually going to be important in furthering some Rachel/Noah/Finn storylines…it's kind of hard to explain but there's an example of it in this chapter.**

**Ok so I'm gonna continue talking at the end but I just wanted to get those few things out there.**

**Here is chapter 7!**

**ENJOY!!!**  
______________________________________________________________________________

Chapter 7  
Admit It

The rest of the weekend had gone by in a blare after the concert. The only thing Rachel could really remember as she walked side by side with Tina in to the cafeteria that Monday afternoon was falling asleep to I Love Lucy reruns on the couch on Saturday night. "Nothing special…how was your weekend?" Rachel said with a shrug as she politely asked her the same question.

As Tina began to babble on about her Saturday night with Artie, Rachel found herself looking around in search of Finn. She knew she probably wouldn't find him. He had been skipping lunch at school now for a few weeks. Yet for some reason everyday she found herself searching the cafeteria in hopes to see his face.

Rachel cursed herself mentally as she grabbed a plastic lunch tray and made her way down the line with Tina still gabbing in her ear about their ultimate Monopoly game. _You have to stop doing this to yourself. It's just a bad habit…you can stop._

Rachel sighed as she and Tina reached the end of the line, their plates now filled with whatever horrible oatmeal-resembling food the school was serving today. Rachel wrinkled her nose at the sight, her stomach grumbling. Why, oh why, had she forgotten to pack a lunch today?

"Tina!" Mercedes called out, standing from her normal seat waving her over.

Tina's smile brightened and she waved, balancing the plate in one hand. "Come on." She instructed making her way towards the table. Slowly Rachel followed behind feeling somewhat awkward as she did so. Normally at lunch Rachel would come up with some excuse that she needed to go to the computer lab to finish up a project or something when really she would go hide out in the library and eat her lunch in peace. For some reason being surrounded by tons of books calmed her.

"Where's Ali?" Tina asked setting her tray down in the seat next to Artie.

"She doesn't have lunch this period." Kurt explained not taking his eyes off the latest edition of Teen Vogue his nose was in at the moment.

Rachel stood behind the seat in between Kurt and Tina for a moment not sure if she should sit. Slow and cautious Rachel placed her tray in front of the seat and when no one objected slid in to the chair.

It was weird. Sitting with glee kids. Heck, it was weird just sitting with other people. Rachel wasn't sure if she was supposed to talk first but seeing that Tina and Mercedes were already in a heated conversation of the latest episode of Gossip Girl she stayed quiet.

She glanced up from the mashed potatoes (at least she thought they were mashed potatoes) on her plate she was picking at and looked at Kurt who was still diligently reading the magazine cover to cover.

"Howdy." Artie greeted with a grin as he wheeled up to the table next to Kurt. "Hey, Rachel." He said slowly he said glancing at Kurt who just shrugged behind his magazine seeming just as confused as Artie was to why she was sitting here but neither said anything.

"Hey you guys!" Brittney called out racing in to the cafeteria adjusting the messenger bag that was hung over her shoulder as she ran towards the table. When she reached the table she breathed heavily looking like she had just run from the other side of the building. "Mr. Schue wants everybody in the music room like now." She said using the same urgency Mr. Schue had used to tell her.

"Why?"

Brittney shrugged. "He just said it was really important." Brittney ran off back toward the music room almost plowing over a small group of freshman girls on the way there.

The members at the table all exchanged worried glances when everyone turned to look at Kurt as he dramatically cleared his throat.

"So," Kurt said as he folded the corner of the page he was on before slipping it in his Marc Jacobs tote. "Let's go."

* * *

A few minutes later, after making their ways through the halls of McKinley happy to find that no football players were lurking in the corners just waiting to deck them in the face with a slushie, everyone was seated impatiently in the music room waiting for Mr. Schue, Ali, and Quinn.

"What do you think it is?" Tina whispered to the group that had circled around the piano.

As other members of the glee club threw out their crazy theories Rachel's stomach let out a low grumble. _Did Mr. Schue's emergency really have to happen during my lunch period? Why couldn't it have happened during my killer math test next period?_

Rachel glanced over her shoulder slightly as Puck walked away from the piano and slumped in to an orange chair. Rachel couldn't help but notice the angry expression on his face and slowly approached him.

After rummaging through his backpack he found his beat up brown paper bagged lunch and brought it out, a small smile cracking on his stone cold face for the first time that day noticing that his sister's artistic skills had been put to good use all over his lunch.

"Hi." Rachel greeted standing in front of Puck.

He jumped at the sound of her voice having been too lost in through to have even seen her coming towards him. That had been happening a lot lately. Where he would get so lost in thought he wouldn't notice anything else around. Most of the time it was him thinking about Quinn and the baby. Today was no different.

Ever since Saturday when Quinn had told him that he needed to take her to get tested to make sure the baby didn't have any Jewish birth defects he had been freaking out.

If the baby's health was endangered for any reason whatsoever because of him he had no idea how he could live with himself.

When Rachel became aware of the fact that he wasn't going to greet her she sat down in the chair next to him silently. Rachel expected a comment of some sort but he only glanced at her before taking a big bite of his peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Rachel sat silently beside Noah, folding her hands in her lap when he stomach grumbled again.

Noah glanced at her again as he swallowed the big bite of his sandwich. "You hungry?" he asked.

Rachel didn't need to even nod as he stomach grumbled again. Noah smirked as he pulled out the other half of his sandwich from the lunch bag sitting at his feet.

"Here" He said tossing the plastic bag in her lap. "I'm not the hungry anyway."

Rachel smiled as she eagerly ripped open the bag and began to eat.

Noah just watched her in silence as she polished off the other half in less than a minute and he smiled for the second time that day. "Wow. Could you be any more of a pig?"

"Could you be any more of a jerk?" she retorted quickly with a kink of her eyebrow as she brushed the crumbs from her skirt on to the music room floor not being able to remember when a PB&J had tasted so good .

"Touché."

She shrugged and smiled. They grew silent again as Rachel reached in to her bag for the bottle of water from her lunch.

"So, what exactly did you and my mom talk about on Friday?" Noah asked as Rachel took a long sip from the bottle remembering a few nights back as he glanced down at his lunch bag/his sister's canvas.

Rachel shrugged as she lowered the bottle from her lips and twisted back on the cap. "Nothing really. She just asked me how I knew you and I said glee club. Then I asked her where the bathroom was and she pointed me down the hall..." Rachel trailed off, both of them knowing where it went from there. They were silent for a moment as they avoided eye contact.

Rachel cleared her throat and decided now was a good time to change the subject. "You know you're really good with you sister, Noah." Rachel commended. "I never knew how good you were with kids."

Noah ran a hand through his Mohawk and smiled sheepishly. "You think so?"

Rachel nodded.

_Yeah. Now if only Quinn knew that too. _Noah scoffed to himself just as Quinn walked in to the room. Her cold hazel eyes grazed over him stopping for nearly a second before walking toward the piano and sliding in between Santana and Matt without even another glance in his direction.

"Where's Mr. Schue?" she asked.

"Right here." He said as he walked in to the classroom. He tried to hide the sad sound of his voice with a half smile but it was apparent that whatever the news he was about to deliver was bad. "Everyone take your seats. The period is almost up but I thought it was important I tell you know."

The people standing around the piano all walked over to their normal seats. Rachel couldn't help but notice how, weirdly, over the past two weeks her 'normal' seat in glee was next to Noah. The world really threw you for a loop sometimes.

"We're still waiting for Ali." Kurt pointed out as he crossed his legs at the knee.

Mr. Schue sighed. "That's actually what I needed to talk to you guys about." He ran a hand through his hair and grumbled something about, what sounded like, was Miss. Sylvester.

"No offence Mr. Schue but can you just spit it out." Noah said impatiently.

Mr. Schue huffed and continued. "Ali can no longer be part of the glee club."

Everyone gasped.

"Why?!"

"Su…Miss. Sylvester has done some extensive research on show choir rules recently and it states that if someone switches schools in the middle of the school year they are not a loud to participate in _any_ extra-curricular activities that entire year. Including glee club."

Everyone gasped again.

In seconds the room had started babbling making it sound like a filled stadium and not 11 students in the music room.

"But Mr. Schue," Kurt said over the loud crowd. "We still need 12 members to compete."

"I know."

"So what does that mean?"

"It means," Mr. Schue said with another sigh. "Glee club has been canceled."

The room went in to another tantrum.

Rachel stood from her seat in anger and stomped her foot. "Mr. Schuster, we cannot give up that easily."

"It's already done, Rachel. Figgens informed me this morning."

"It's only one member. There's gotta be someone in the god forsaken school that would join." Noah chirped in.

Rachel smiled slightly at him, thankful for the backup, before turning to Mr. Schuster with a nod.

"I think I can help you with that."

Everyone turned to find Finn standing the doorway of the music.

"What are you doing here?" Rachel said through clenched teeth. "You quit, remember?"

"I heard Ms. Sylvester say that glee got canceled so I talked to Coach Tanaka." Finn said taking a few steps in the music room, his hands resting casually on the straps of his backpack. "I explained everything to him and mentioned how I needed to be there with Quinn…" Finn said trailing off, shooting Quinn a sweet smile making both Rachel and Puck glare at the back of his head. "And he gave in."

"That's great!" Mr. Schuster beamed. "I'll go tell Figgens right now!"

"But Mr. Schu…" Rachel began but was interrupted by the loud ringing of the bell signaling the end to the period.

"We can talk later Rachel." Mr. Schue said before walking out the door, a newfound happiness in his step.

Rachel stomped her foot again watching as the other members of the glee club stood from the seats and embraced Finn's with warm welcome backs as they all walked out of the room together. As Rachel spun around she was greeted with a smirking Puck.

"You don't sound too happy to have your fantasy boyfriend back in glee." He said.

Rachel rolled her eyes as she moved past him and grabbed her bag. "Don't try and pretend you're not just as pissed."

"Finn's my best friend. Why wouldn't I be happy to have him back?"

"You're not fooling me, Noah." Rachel stated plainly as she swung bag over her shoulder. "We both know you don't like having Finn here taking up the little bit of time you actually get to spend with Quinn."

Noah stayed quiet as he clenched his jaw and averted his eyes away from Rachel's face.

"So? What if I am?"

"Then," Rachel began. "You and I are a lot more alike than either of us want to admit."

And with that Rachel spun around and walked out in to the buzzing hallway leaving Noah to stand alone in the suddenly very quiet room.

* * *

**END OF CHAPTER 7!! (Dude I can't believe I just wrote the words chapter 7…I know that doesn't seem like a lot of chapters but thinking about how this just started out as a random one shot it kind of is…)**

**ANYWAY…What'd you guys think?? I'm really kind of iffy about the Puck and Rachel scene in the middle of the chapter because they were somewhat out of character from their usual bickering selves.**

**Like always REVIEWS = LOVE!!! **

**Btw…if I hadn't said it enough…THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for all the wonderful comments you guys leave! You guys are really the reason I love to write this story so much! You're the bestest! =D**

**P.S. Sorry it was so short...the next chapter will be longer...I promise!**

**Love,**

**Adorkable97**


	8. Chapter 8: I Cry Myself To Sleep At Nite

**Disclaimer: I do not own Glee**

Chapter 8  
I Cry Myself To Sleep At Night

Rachel let out a sigh of relief as she dropped her hands to her sides after having just typed a 5 page essay for English class. It was due Thursday but she was never one for doing assignments last minute.

She returned her hands to the keyboard for only a moment, saving the document and turning off the laptop.

Rachel stood from her chair and flopped on to her bed, the springs underneath letting out a loud squeak. Just as Rachel had settled herself in and turned on the TV she heard her cell phone ring from inside her bag on the other side of the room. Rachel groaned at the thought of having to stand up so she stayed completely still.

Normally Rachel was the opposite of lazy but with everything going on with glee lately she had felt really drained.

Just as the second episode of that Nickelodeon show about two brothers started she noticed a set of headlights pull in to the driveway. The car let out a loud beep making Rachel jump.

"What the…" Rachel mumbled to herself as she rolled out of bed and approached her second story bedroom window. She pulled back the curtains slightly to find a black Eldorado sitting in her driveway as the head lights turned off and the engine was cut short. _Noah?_

Just as Rachel began to rack her brain for some reasonable explanation why Noah Puckerman would be at her house at 7 o'clock on a Monday night she heard the doorbell ring followed by Noah's large knuckles knocking on the door.

Puck still wasn't entirely sure how he had gotten roped in to doing this. Standing at Rachel Berry's doorstep was not his ideal Monday night.

When she swung open the door she just blankly stared at him.

"What are you doing here?" she finally asked after a long pause.

"Nice to see you to." He greeted sarcastically.

"Your sarcasm is rich." Rachel said with a roll of her eyes. "But seriously, what are you doing here?"

"I don't really have time to explain." He said looking around stuffing his balled up fists in to the pockets of his letterman's jacket. "We gotta go. Just get your coat."

"Why should I?" Rachel asked leaning against the doorway and crossing her arms over her chest.

Puck grumbled. "Why do you always have to be so damn difficult, Berry?"

She smiled and shrugged. "Just part of my charm, I suppose."

"Fine." Puck said putting his hands up in defeat backing up slightly off toward the steps. "I'm going without you."

He spun around and walked down the porch steps toward his car._ I don't need this. I'm a stud._

"Wait!" Rachel called from the porch just as Noah was reaching for the handle on his door.

"What?" he yelled over the suddenly loudly blowing wind.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

Puck shrugged holding out his arms and smirked. "I guess you'll just have to come with me and see for yourself."

Rachel eyed Puck seeing if he would break down but when he didn't she huffed and stomped in to the house to grab her coat. _Jerk._

*******

"Ok. Spill Puckerman. We've been driving for like 10 minutes." Rachel commanded shifting in her seat to face him better. "Where are we going?"

He smiled slightly as he ran a hand through his Mohawk as the other causally rested on the leather steering wheel. "Apple Grove."

"Excuse me?"

"That's the street we're going to. Apple Grove Road." He explained examining another pair of street signs.

"And why are we going to Apple Grove Road?"

Puck sighed. "Hummel called like an hour and a half ago and told me that he and the rest of homo-ex…glee club are going to Ali's house to cheer her up because apparently she's really upset about the whole getting kicked out of glee thing."

"So Apple Grove Road is…"

"Ali's street?" Puck said finishing her sentence for her. "Yeah."

"Yeah and it's also right there." Rachel said pointing out the window as Noah's car passed the side street.

"Oh, shit…" he muttered under his breath looking back over his shoulder at the street. Turning the wheel quickly he pulled in and backed up out of someone's driveway before turning around and heading down Ali's street.

Puck let out a sigh as his hands clenched tightly on to the wheel.

"What house is it?" Rachel asked eyeing the houses the lined the sidewalk.

"Um…" Puck fumbled as he leaned over and snatched a piece of scrap paper he had carelessly thrown on the dashboard with Ali's address on it. "7807."

Rachel nodded silently turning away again to look for the house. "Stop." She commanded. "I think this is it."

Noah pressed his foot down on the pedal in front of a yellow house with a brown roof. "Can you see the address?" he asked squinting his round green eyes trying to make out the blur of numbers on the house. Puck knew he needed glasses but refused to get them. He was already getting loads of crap for being part of homo-explosion. Getting glasses would only make things a hell of a lot worse!

Rachel squinted her own eyes and was able to make out to 07 at the end of the address. "It's the house." She confirmed reaching to unbuckle her seat belt, her hand brushing Noah's.

Puck nodded and pulled the car over to the curb before killing the engine.

As the two made their way up the porch steps loud laughter from inside the house filled the very quiet night. Puck and Rachel glanced at one another before he leaned over and rang the door bell causing the laughter to suddenly stop.

"Pause it!" someone cried from inside. "I gotta get the door."

"No it's fine I'll get it." A guy's voice said from inside. "You guys can keep playing."

Footsteps came closer and closer until finally the door swung open and Rachel's breath caught in her throat as her eyes connected with Finn Hudson's.

The trio was silent for a minute as Finn looked between his best friend and Rachel trying to understand why every time he had seen either of them lately they had been with each other.

"Who is it?" Ali's voice interrupted as she stepped in next to Finn. "Rachel! Noah!" she greeted happily stepping out on the porch to greet them both with a hug.

The quick hug startled Rachel out of the trance Finn had put her in. Flustered, Rachel turned away from Finn and tucked her hair behind her ears, something she always did when she was embarrassed.

Ali quickly moved over and gave Puck a quick hug also before stepping back and inviting the couple inside. Rachel glanced at Finn before she rolled her shoulders back and strutted inside the house. _I'm Rachel Berry. I'm a star. I don't need Finn._

Puck and Finn both watched as Rachel walked away from them before slowly following after her in to the living room.

"Rachel and Puck are here!" Ali announced just as Rachel entered the living room, Noah and Finn not far behind.

"Hey you guys!" Tina greeted happily waving with on hand while the other was tightly entangled in Artie's.

"We were just playing Band Hero." Ali explained as she took her seat on the couch next to Mercedes. "You ever play before?"

Rachel shrugged. "A little…" She lied.

Rachel had never played video games a day in her life. She thought they were for the brainless who had nothing better to do with their lives. But really, how hard could they be, right?

* * *

"I lied!" Rachel admitted as she tried, and failed miserably, at playing the guitar, the colorful notes coming down the screen like speeding bullets. "I've never played this! Actually I've never played video games!"

"You've never played video games?!" Matt shouted through a mouthful of chips before swallowing them whole. "That's a crime against humanity, my friend!"

Finn chuckled to himself, placing a hand over his mouth to hide his smile as Rachel struggled with the guitar. Just as he was about to stand up from the love seat to go help her she shoved the guitar at Puck.

"Here" She said standing up from the couch, stripping herself of the guitar and dropping it in Noah's lap. "You know what you're doing."

Finn felt a tug at his heart strings as he saw Rachel, yet again, turn to Noah Puckerman of all people for help. What was up with them lately anyway? Last thing he knew Puck _despised_ Rachel and she wasn't too fond of him either. And now Puck is freaking singing to her in glee and they're holding hands in the hallway?

"I'll be right back." Quinn said distantly dropping her hands that had been warmly wrapped around his arm and taking off out of the living room. Finn barely noticed though, too intently watching his best friend and Rachel.

"Oh, come on, Rach!" Tina said looking over her shoulder from where she was playing drums but managing to keep her eyes on the TV. "You can't quit in the middle of a song!"

"Too late…and see you guys are already doing way better!" she pointed out as she watched both the total score increase and Noah as he worked the guitar with ease.

Rachel watched on the couch for a minute before sighing loudly and standing from the couch. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom."

"We're doing some remodeling to the downstairs bathroom…there's one up stairs though. It's right next to my bedroom." Ali explained from the couch where she lay with her long legs over top of Kurt's lap.

Rachel nodded and left the living room, quickly making her way up the stairs.

When she reached the second floor the laughs of her peers and music from the game were barely audible anymore. So when she heard a muffled crying coming from the first door she passed she stopped.

She looked at the door for a moment before hearing the sound again. With the palm of her hand she lightly pushed open the door to find a Quinn sitting by herself, sobbing in to a pillow.

"You can come in, Rachel." Quinn said keeping her eyes fixated forward. "I see you."

Rachel jumped at the sound of her name, blushing as she realized she had been caught. Reluctantly she pushed the door open further and stepped inside the dark room. Quinn was only visible because of the bright moonlight that shown through the window.

Feeling her way around Rachel made her way to the bed and sat down beside Quinn who just sniffled.

"Are you okay?" Rachel asked softly.

Quinn just looked at her a minute and scoffed. "Do I look okay?"

"You're right. Stupid question." Rachel admitted crossing her legs at the ankle. "Sorry."

"It's alright." Quinn said softly.

The two teen girls were silent for a minute, the only noise was the ticking of a clock on the wall above Ali's cluttered desk.

"Do you think it's going to be okay?" Quinn asked suddenly, turning to look at Rachel for the first time.

"Do I think what is going to be okay?"

"Everything." Quinn said placing a hand on her slowly growing stomach.

Rachel was silent again as she contemplated this. "Honestly? I don't know." She said. "Nobody knows. It's really up to you."

Quinn nodded as she closed her eyes and flashes of Noah from that night so many months ago filled her head. It happened almost every time she would close her eyes. Either that or the unbearably pained expression she imagined Finn would have on his face when he found out the truth about who the real father was. She really wished that Puck wasn't the father. She really wished she hadn't gotten pregnant in the first place. She really wished that everything could just go back to how it had been a few months ago _before_ that night that kept flashing through her head. Quinn wished for a lot of things. But it didn't make a difference because when she opened her eyes again reality came rushing back at her all at once and every time it did all she wanted to do was cry.

Quinn turned her face away from Rachel again and pressed her sharp fingernail in to her hand to stop her from crying as tears filled her hazel eyes.

"But I really hope so." Rachel added.

Quinn sniffled in response, wiping her nose with the sleeve of her gray long sleeved shirt.

"Are you gonna be okay?" Rachel asked.

Quinn nodded. "I think so."

"Do you wanna come down stairs?" Rachel said standing from the bed and reached down to straighten out her skirt only to find she was wearing jeans.

Quinn shook her head. "I think I just need some me time right now. I'll be down in a bit."

Rachel nodded before walking toward the door.

"Hey, Rachel…" Quinn called out softly as Rachel pulled open the door and the light from the hallway filled the dark room.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

Rachel stayed silent and smiled in return before stepping out in to the hallway leaving Quinn alone in the dark room.

* * *

Rachel went back downstairs in to the living room to find that apparently the pizza had been delivered in the time she was upstairs. Everyone hungrily dug in to their dinner stacking pieces of pizza on their paper plates.

Matt held a slice between his teeth and three rested on his plate as he made it back in to the living room. "We're aloud to eat in here, right?" he said after placing his plate on the coffee table and removing the slice of pizza from his mouth momentarily.

"Uh-huh."Ali replied through a mouth full of pepperoni and sausage pizza.

Matt, having already shoved the slice of pizza back in his mouth, didn't bother to respond as the other glee members filled the room.

"You okay?" Tina asked noticing the distant look on Rachel's face as she leaned over her to grab a paper plate.

"Yeah. I'm fine." Rachel replied as she took the last slice of pizza from the box before exiting the room quickly.

Rachel finally reached the couch and dug in to her pizza.

As Noah walked in to the room his plate stacked high with three slices he took a seat next to Rachel. When he saw her piece of pizza was already half gone he shook his head and smiled. He opened his mouth to say something but she held up a finger warning him not to speak.

"Don't even start with me, Noah Puckerman." She warned after swallowing a bite of pizza. "Look at your plate!"

"Yeah, but I'm a guy." He defended.

"So?"

"So…I'm aloud…no…more like _supposed _to eat like this." He stated with the utter most certainty.

"Is that so?" Rachel asked crossing her legs and folding her hands at the knee.

Noah nodded through a large bite of his pizza. "It's a known fact."

Rachel shook her head and laughed. "Whatever."

"Does anyone know where Quinn went?" Finn asked as he waltzed back in to the living and dropped on to the couch inches away from Rachel, the love seat he and Quinn had been sitting on now occupied by Brittney and Mike.

Rachel looked at Finn then at the small space between the two telling him with her eyes to move over but Finn pretended not to notice.

Rachel shook her head and turned her back to him.

"Oh crap." Ali said with a groan having just sat down on the floor.

"What?"

"I forgot to get the drinks."

"I can get them." Rachel offered placing her plate on the table and standing from the couch quickly. _Anything to get away from Finn._

"There are some cups in the very top cupboard above the fridge." She explained as Rachel stepped over people, making her way out of the living room. "Thank you!" she called after her before she was gone.

"No problem." Rachel called back over her shoulder before walking through the hallway and in to the all white kitchen.

Rachel let out a loud breath and ran both hands through her long silky brown hair as she entered the empty kitchen. She was feeling trapped with Finn sitting next to her. When would he take the hint that she was trying to stay as far away from him as possible. He had a freaking baby on the way yet every time she turned around she found him watching her. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair to Quinn or Rachel.

Rachel pushed the tall football player to the back of her mind and stepped forward to the refrigerator. When she pulled open the door she grabbed the three different varieties of two liter soda bottles that filled the top shelf of the fridge. Placing them on the counter Rachel turned back to the fridge and looked up to see the small cupboard just above the fridge like Ali had said there was. Rachel sighed knowing immediately she wouldn't be able to reach it without a chair. _These are the times I hate being short._

Rachel spun around and yelped when she ran in to Finn. She jumped back so that she was pinned up against the fridge. "Finn." She breathed out clenching her chest. "What the heck are you doing?"

"I thought you might need some help." He explained. "And it looks like I was right." He said with a smile as he eyes lifted up to the cupboard.

"I'm fine. Thank you." Rachel argued but Finn didn't listen just taking a step closer, they're skin now brushing against each other as he reached up and with ease got the stack of blue plastic cups.

Rachel closed her eyes as goose bumps ran over her milky white skin at the mere contact of Finn.

Bring the cups down he looked back down in to Rachel's brown eyes. "There." He said softly.

"Thank you."

"Sure." Finn said never taking his eyes off Rachel's lips remembering how she had tasted like strawberries last the time they had kissed. Finn closed his eyes for a moment at the thought of that night. That night had really been scary for him. He had expected her to kiss him. That wasn't the scary part. The scary part was the way he felt about the kiss. The feeling that he wanted to do it again. The feeling that Rachel Berry might just be the girl for him. The same feeling he had right now.

Rachel's breathing stopped short in her throat as he took another step closer closing the very small gap between them.

"I really wanna kiss you right now." Finn confessed in a whisper, his breath making the hair on Rachel's neck stand up.

Rachel just looked up at him motionless, her mouth hanging open slightly in awe. _This isn't happening. This isn't happening._

"Can I…kiss you?"

Rachel snapped her mouth shut and just nodded making Finn smile as he placed a hand on her cheek.

As she closed her eyes and moved in closer to Finn the thought of Quinn sitting upstairs in Ali's bedroom crying crossed her mind.

"Wait…"Rachel said putting a hand on his chest to stop him from coming any closer. "We can't do…"

"What's going on here?"

At the sound of Noah's voice both Finn and Rachel turned abruptly to look at him.

Noah just continued to stare long and hard at Finn thinking of the many ways he could punch his face out right about now.

"I was just getting the cups. It's nothing." Finn said holding up the cups to prove it. Finn shot a look at Rachel. "Right, Rachel?"

"Right," Rachel agreed her voice audibly weak. "It was nothing." Without another word Rachel pushed herself off the refrigerator and past Finn heading toward Noah who still stood in the doorway of the kitchen. "Can you please take me home?" she whispered trying her best not to let Puck see the tears forming in her eyes.

Puck nodded. "Just go get your coat."

Rachel moved past him and in to the hallway to follow his instructions leaving Finn and Noah in the room themselves.

"If you want I can take her home." Finn offered.

"I don't really think that's the best idea."

Finn rolled his eyes and scoffed. "God, what is up with you lately, man?! Since when do you care about Rachel?"

"Around the same time you stopped."

And with that Puck left Finn only to stand there and watch the boy he once knew as his best friend and the only girl to ever really get him walk out of the house together.

* * *

Rachel and Puck sat in silence for the first few minutes of the car ride both too lost in thought to even really notice the other person was in the car.

"Why do you let him do that to you?"

"Do what?" Rachel asked softly keeping her eyes on the road in front of her.

"Treat you like that." Puck said clenching the wheel so tightly his knuckles turned white at the thought of Finn. "Act like he cares about you one moment then totally changes the next."

"Why do you let Quinn do it to you?"

"This isn't about me." Puck said brushing it off, annoyed that she was partially right.

Rachel sighed as she fell back in to her seat with a small yawn. "I don't know."

They were quiet for the rest of the ride home. Normally the silence would bother them but over the past few days this is what they had grown used to.

When Puck pulled in to Rachel's driveway and cut the engine they both just sat there for a moment.

"I have a question." Rachel said breaking the long silence.

"Shoot." Puck said swinging his arm over the back of her chair casually.

"The other night-when you dropped me off- you said you were sorry." Rachel began. "What were you sorry for?"

Puck sighed and turned to Rachel with a sad, small smile. "Things. Just a lot of things."

Knowing she wasn't going to get anything else out of him Rachel pushed open the door and climbed out. Rachel turned around and smiled. "Goodnight, Noah."

"Goodnight, Rachel."

Rachel slammed the door shut with a small smile and walked all the way up to her doorstep, turning around only to watch Noah's car drive away in to the night before heading inside the house to cry herself to sleep.

* * *

**END OF CHAPTER 8**

**PHEEEWWW!!! THAT TOOK FOREVER!!! I had all the ideas for the chapter from almost the moment I sat down to write it but it took me forever to finish!**

**Anyway…what did you guys think? I really, really, really hope you guys like this chapter because of how long it took me to update and the fact that I spent a lot of time working on it for you guys to make it just right!**

**As always REVIEW, REVIEW, and REVIEW!!!!!! And thank you for the few that did review the last chapter…I only got about 4 reviews for the last chapter so this time I'm hoping for about 10 or more! If you guys could do that it would just be totally awesome!!! :)**

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**Love,**

**Adorkable97**


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